Winebarger Family Reunion

Living back east has put us in closer proximity to a lot of my extended family since both my parents grew up in Virginia. This weekend, we went to a family reunion on my mom's side. There were a lot of her cousins and my second-cousins whom I had never met before.

We drove down to Hampton on Friday to stay with my Uncle Scott again. We squeezed in a trip to the beach Saturday morning before the reunion. It was a beautiful clear day at the beach following some rainy days (they just received 12 inches of rain!). Eric and I thought it would be a fun activity to collect sea shells with Audrey.

Audrey was more interested in collecting sand...

her parents interested in redirecting her back to the shells...

shells were collected...

shells were dumped out, teaching her parents flexibility.

Audrey constantly teaches us to have fun and

to not always be concerned about the tasks.

Elliott slept through the beach trip.

We drove about an hour and a half north to Gloucester (near Yorktown)

for the Winebarger (my mom's maiden name) family reunion.

Audrey was quick to find some girls to

play with, her third cousins- Eva and Sophia

now that's some extended family!

Elliott was quick to be passed around

This was the family I knew when I got there....

Me with my cousin's wife, Chantel and their daughter, Sophia.

My mom's counsin, Joe, and

my Uncle Bob and Aunt Joan

My Aunt Sandy, her son Mark and wife Chantel

My Uncle Scott and Aunt Laura

and this is the family I knew by the time we left.

Elliott met his 89 year-old twin...I tried to get this picture, of course Elliott turned... so I will have to supplement another picture. Maybe it's just the baldness and the ears that stick out just a little bit but we thought that Elliott totally looks like my mom's Uncle Cloid.

The party was over and Elliott asleep again, so it was time

to hit the road (for a 5 hour drive home).

On the drive home, Audrey decided that she had to poop while we were on a long country road. Elliott needed to eat, so Eric got the pleasure of assisting her to the brushes. They couldn't even go off the road much because there was so much poison ivy around. Audrey was traumatized that we were leaving her poop... we tried to ease her mind telling her that it would help the plants grown... "my poop is going to grow?" Oh, the things preschoolers get fixated on!

A classic... you don't have to teach a kid how to

pick and eat, they figure that one out themselves.

We had the great buggie pick conversation...

"why is it not okay?"

It was a long drive home, but worth the trip.